MRI Discovers Undetected Health Issue Caused by Childbirth Stress

One of the toughest jobs in the world is being a mother. Nobody can really tell how hard it is to be a parent until one gets to experience it. However, giving birth is the most painful stage in most women's life and the new study suggested that the injuries it inflicts to mothers are comparable to the ones sustained by athletes in endurance sports.

According to a report by Newser on Yahoo, researchers from the University of Michigan surveyed 68 new mothers to determine some of the most serious effects of giving birth on a woman's body. They discovered that 25 percent of the women who were included in the study sustained injuries equivalent to the kind of damage athletes suffer in an intense situation.

The team of researchers has also found out 15 percent of the mothers, who participated, suffered severe pelvic injuries with no possibility of being healed. The researchers pointed out that without an MRI, these facts would never have been discovered, leaving mothers to suffer in pain with no help.

In a report by Vox, MRI is commonly used to diagnose injuries incurred by athletes in sports. This kind of medical method can be very useful to women during childbirth to identify long-lasting injuries. Some mothers do not recover from the effects of giving birth as quickly as what their doctors advise them.

Most of the time, these women will just go on with their lives without figuring out what is wrong. Injuries like these should be discovered at an early stage so that treatment can also start early.

Janis Miller, the lead researcher and an associate professor at the University of Michigan School Of Nursing, said that an athlete will always get an immediate MRI diagnosis as soon as an apparent injury occurs to identify the damage.

"We have this thing where we tell women, 'Well, you're six weeks postpartum, and now we don't need to see you - you'll be fine.' But not all women feel fine after six weeks nor are ready to go back to work, and they aren't crazy," Miller stated.

The goal of the researchers is to change many doctors' approach in treating women who suffered injuries during childbirth.

Although Miller pointed out the importance of MRI in diagnosing injuries, it should not be recommended to new mothers right after childbirth. "A key point is that if a woman is sensing that she has delayed recovery or unusual symptoms of discomfort, she should see a specialist," Miller suggested.